- Quoting Kim Forwood 
 - to David Stumpf
 KF> Are you sure it's public domain? If it is, where can we find it?
 
 DS> No, it's not public domain, but the copyright is held by Eric Omen
 DS> and Martin Pollard, neither of which I believe would care what
 DS> you did with.  If I knew how to reach either of them, I would tell
 DS> you so you could be sure as to not step on any toes, but both,
 DS> AFAIK, have not been seen in the online world in a while.
 KF> Well, I don't want to get on your case, but just want to point out
 KF> that whether or not they're available online doesn't have any affect on
 KF> the validity of the copyright, and it's not really your decision to say
 KF> whether they would mind or not, unless perhaps you're speaking as
 KF> their attorney (which I doubt).
 KF> Do with it what you will, but I'd rather not take any chances myself.
Well, I will say, you are correct.  *But*, I have gone so far as to
assume since the authors of Renegade, Iniquity, Raptor and several
other bbs systems are NOT in jail at present, then the copyright
is useless.
A copyright is ONLY useful if you actually take action to stop
the distribution and/or use of the copyrighted material.
As I stated in my previous message, the code IS copyrighted, but,
since the copyright holders do not enforce the rights they have and
have not for years, we can assume they could not care what happens
to their property.
But, assumption is the root of most mistakes.
      [David.Stumpf@Earthling.net]    [http://www.dzs.home.ml.org]
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... Ben Dover & C. Howit Feels -- Attorneys at Law
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